Saxon » SaxonC

I have tried another simple example with the Python saxonc module built on Windows 10 64bit using Cython against/with Python 3.7; this time I have tried to use a Python string and create a PyXdmAtomicValue using the make_string_value method of PySaxonProcessor:

import saxonc

s1 = 'This is a test.'

with saxonc.PySaxonProcessor(license=False) as proc:
    print(proc.version)
       
    xdm_string_value = proc.make_string_value(s1)
    
    print(xdm_string_value)
    
    xquery_processor = proc.new_xquery_processor()
    
    xquery_processor.set_parameter('s1', xdm_string_value)
    
    result = xquery_processor.run_query_to_value(query_text = 'declare variable $s1 external; $s1')
    
    print(result)
    
    print(result.get_atomic_value().string_value)

This doesn't work at all, erroring with

Saxon/C 1.2.0 running with Saxon-HE 9.9.1.5J from Saxonica
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File ".\string-param-for-xquery1.py", line 8, in <module>
    xdm_string_value = proc.make_string_value(s1)
  File "saxonc.pyx", line 247, in saxonc.PySaxonProcessor.make_string_value
    val.derivedaptr = val.derivedptr = val.thisvptr = self.thisptr.makeStringValue(str_)
TypeError: expected bytes, str found

Is that an intended design of the API?

It seems most functions exposed elsewhere in the API to Python and expecting a Python str do then internally use .encode('UTF-8') before passing the value on to the C/C++ char * side expecting API.

Is that missing in the saxonc.PySaxonProcessor.make_string_value implementation?

Or do really have to pass bytes in?